Bigfoot: A Moral Dilemma?

There’s this guy who claims to have killed 2 big foots, and he has a witness who will back him up. It’s all been documented and podcasted, probably a hundred times over, but I’m leaving the names out of the story because, simply put, that’s how I want to tell it.

So yeah, there’s this guy who has made an extremely bold claim, and that’s that he killed 2 bigfoots with a rifle while out deer hunting. How does that make you feel? What if I told you, the story goes like this:

He and his friend were out hunting one day. Driving the roads, looking for deer, when they came upon a weird sight. They saw a large bipedal animal they did not recognize, sitting near 2 very small versions of the same creature. The hunters stopped and gazed upon the sight, unsure of what to do. The shooter pulled out his rifle, but didn’t shoot right away. He wasn’t sure what it was. When the animal (or creature) realized it was being watched, and a gun was pointed at it and the little ones it was now guarding, it stood up, threw up its arms and started making a gesture with each of its hands, simultaneously – smacking it’s thumbs toward its other fingers. (Imagine you were making fun of someone because they talk too much, and you used your hand to motion “talking” – this was the gesture the animal was making while swaying its held-up arms left and right). The shooter was loaded, cocked, and ready to fire. His friend told him not to shoot it, because neither of them knew what it was. Not caring that this creature was unknown, and knowing full well – having consciously stated between the two of them – this could be a person in a gorilla suit, the shooter fired with intent to kill, and struck the largest of the 3 unknown animals at the rib cage under its raised up arms. It fled, bleeding, sprinting off with the 2 little ones in hot pursuit. And the shooter followed.

The driver made it clear he didn’t want the shooter to fire on the little ones, since they didn’t know what these creatures were, and he really didn’t want the shooter chasing after the big one, either. But the shooter was relentless and tracked the injured animal until he came upon the 2 little ones. Babies. Babies looking for their mother, who had clearly leaped up a very high rock face which they were too small to climb, or jump up on to, to get away. So they were left at the bottom trying to climb to their mother, who had disappeared and was out of sight. The shooter pulled his gun, and shot one of the little animals who was actively climbing the rock face, and killed it. The driver had finally caught up to the shooter and saw what had been done. His reaction was described as – upset and disturbed that the shooter killed this baby animal. And since neither knew what it was, they put the animal under a shrub, covered it up, and left it there. When they returned later, to retrieve the body, it was gone.

So, I ask again, how does this story of a shooter killing 2 bigfoots make you feel? Clearly the story indicates these animals were peacefully going about their business, and were very likely a mother and her 2 small babies. Let me ask you this; when someone pulls a gun on you, and you’re standing there defenseless and, by all rights, helpless, knowing your 2 small children are behind you and there’s nothing you can do to stop them from being hurt by an assailant with a gun; You have no idea what the gunman’s intent is, but you know if he decides to shoot on you or your family, someone will likely die… you don’t know the language of the gunman, so you can’t communicate your fears, and you can’t ask him why he’s about to do this, and you can’t plead for the safety and well being of your children. What do you do? How do you gesture?

When someone pulls a gun on you and you’ve got no gun of your own, don’t you put your arms up in the air? Like this bigfoot was said to have done?

I’m going to lay my opinion on the line right here and tell you I’m completely disgusted by this story (which holds much more credence than most, because there was a witness). I’m completely disgusted a baby was shot. I’m completely disgusted an animal who was clearly pleading for its life in a very conscious and cognitive manner was wounded and left to die in the forest while its 2 children were left without their parent. The manner in which this mother communicated its final desperate pleadings could have been easily understood by anyone with half a brain in their head and a little bit of conscience, but no, this guy shot it anyway. Knowing full well he and his friend acknowledged to each other they had absolutely no clue what this animal was. Why is that a big deal? Because this kill-shot wasn’t for putting meat on the table for his family. It wasn’t a do-or-die situation. He wasn’t being charged. He wasn’t being threatened. He wasn’t going to eat the animal. He just killed it because he wanted to kill it. That’s it. That’s the only reason these 2 bigfoots were killed. And a baby. A baby. A baby desperately trying to reach its wounded mother, shot dead for no reason.

My moral and ethical standards regarding the killing of bigfoot have been severely insulted by this story, and I haven’t a good thing to say about the shooter involved, in the least.